Taking inspiration from the surrealist painters, and adding a strong dose of twenty-first-century technology and a love of great cooking, Dutch photographer Jan Bartelsman turned his lens on the esteemed chefs of the United States.Coast to coast, he photographed, interviewed, and collected recipes from dozens of luminaries of the food world.Amid four-star meals and dreamworld images, he reveals the very essence of each personality in this witty-and admittedly bizarre-portrait gallery.
With photographic sleight of hand and great humor,Bartelsman plays off the personalities of one great American cook (Julia Child) and thirty-nine great chefs to create images that are spirited, insightful, and always unique: Rotund geese appear at Daniel Boulud's feet;the French Laundry's Thomas Keller hangs out garlic on a clothesline; Suzanne Goin strikes a graceful pose with a Martha Graham-inspired carrot!
From a young age onward, I have been driven to eat good food.Not because my grandmother was a great cook and took me out looking for berries, nuts, and mushrooms in the woods, as is the case with some of the great chefs in this book, but because my mother was a lousy cook. I used to hang around outside the few restaurants near my house, just to catch the smell of good food being prepared arid make plans for the day that I would actually go inside and taste it. Then, when I was nine, my attentions shifted from food to photography-my great-aunt Jopie had given me a camera and a developing set to process film. I was hooked, but I didn't abandon my first love altogether. When I got older, my two passions merged. Not only did I achieve my goal of eating in great restaurants, I got to meet and photograph the best food artists in the world.This project had a great start. On our first trip from Amsterdam to New York to begin the photo shoots, my colleague, Cees, and I took a taxi from Kennedy airport directly to Times Square where the James Beard Awards (the prestigious awards ceremony for chefs) were being held. Our publisher had invited us so we would get an immediate feel for the culinary world we were entering.As we approached the venue, we noticed that all the men were wearing suits or tuxedos, which we hadn't thought of bringing.Luckily, a few paces farther up the sidewalk we heard a man yelling, "Men's designer suits for sale!" We reappeared a bit later,dressed to the nines.
PREFACE BY JAN BARTELSMAN
INTRODUCTION BY STEPHANIE LYNESS
JULIA CHILD
BEN AND KAREN BARKER
LIDIA BASTIANICH
RICK BAYLESS
DANIEL BOULUD
JEFFREY BUBEN
TOM COLICCHIO
GARY DANKO
ROBERT DEL GRANDE
TRACI DES JARDINS
ROCCO DISPIRITO
TOM DOUGLAS
WYLIE DUFRESNE
TODD ENGLISH
BOBBY FLAY
CLAUDIA FLEMING
SUZANNE GOIN
CHRISTINE KEFF
THOMAS KELLER
BOB KINKEAD
JEAN-MARIE LACROIX
NOBUYUKI MATSUHISA
NANCY OAKES
PATRICK O'CONNELL
TADASHI ONO
MICHEL RICHARD
ERIC RIPERT
MARCUS SAMUELSSON
LYDIA SHIRE
KATY SPARKS
SUSAN SPICER
JOACHIM SPLICHAL
ALLEN SUSSER
RICK TRAMONTO
CHARLIE TROTTER
MING TSAI
NORMAN VAN AKEN
MARC VETRI
JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN
BOB WAGGONER
ABOUT THE CHEFS
THE RESTAURANTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX